Co-Authoring for Semi-Annual channel

Steel Contributor

When will coauthoring in the desktop app be released for the semi-annual channel?

16 Replies

Also looking for this information.  They are really good at hiding that this feature requires the Monthly channel to work...I'm on 1708 but don't have co-authoring available in Semi Annual Targeted.

 

Help!

Yes Please.  I have spent the past 2 days fighting with trying to figure out why this won't work to finally come across this one post that explained my issue.

 

Microsoft was 0 help on the phone when I talked to them

I have it available now since I changed to the Monthly channel (1712 at the moment).

 

For now, if you're not on the Monthly Channel, it will only work in Excel Online.

for others that may wonder how to switch from the targeted to monthly channels: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/3185078/how-to-switch-from-deferred-channel-to-current-chan...

Approximately January 2019! The new semi-annual (targeted) came out on March 13. This build contains the feature set that will be released in the July 2018 update, and co-authoring didn't make the cut. So it looks like Microsoft will push this one out during the January 2019 release instead.

 

Semi-annual (targeted) release notes: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/office/mt465751.aspx

Explanation of channel release windows: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/DeployOffice/overview-of-update-channels-for-office-365-proplus#vis...

Disappointing.

I've got clients actually considering switch to G-Suite for the co-authoring feature in sheets. I'm amazed that it's not going to make the semi-annual channel in July. Bizarrely, when I suggest they edit the document in Excel online, they don't like that idea. But they will considering going browser only for G-Suite. Users eh! 


But still disappointed with Microsoft on this one...

Yea,

I knew going to 6 month release tracks was going to cause delays in features, but this is ridiculous.

 

The bad thing is, the OneDrive Sync client auto enables sync documents with office 2016 and causes continuous lockouts for documents stored in SharePoint. I don't know how many people in my org have had this issue.

Might be coincidence but same client I mention above raised a ticket about shifting to G-Suite because there was a resource tracker Excel document that keeps getting locked. Bit of a knee jerk reaction but it does show how annoying this is.

 

Generally, I recommend they don't synchronise document libraries onto their laptop using OneDrive except if possibly going somewhere where internet access is suspect or they definitely need an offline copy for an important meeting.

 

 

Not 100% sure what you mean by autosync with OneDrive?

In the OneDrive Sync client, under settings, on the Office Tab, there is a checkmark for Use Office 2016 to sync Office files that I open. Since our users are on the 6 month deferred track, they do not have the co-authoring features. This checkbox causes tons of lockouts for excel users. Disabling it cleared the issue for us. 

Interesting - never understood what that open did. It's checked by default. Would that OneDrive setting effect documents opened from a SharePoint Online document library if the library wasn't synchronised?

And where does the Upload Centre fit into all of this? Bring back good old file shares - things were simple then :)
Can you confirm that changing this setting still clear the issue with locked Excel files?

Hello, any update as to whether the co-authoring features has been released in the January 2019 update? Our firm is on the semi-annual channel and I've not seen the feature yet, so curious to know when to expect this to arrive...

Does a little dance! We've been waiting for co-authoring for what seems like years.

 

And yes auto-save. I've already prepared my main client for the change. They are going to hate it at first but then again, people resist any change to Office :)

 

I've been running the monthly version for, err, months and I've got used to it - in fact, I'm now upset when a document on my old Windows domain at work doesn't autosave.